North Central High School Distinguished Alumnus

WALLACE B. HALL

Class of 1931Inducted 2000

During his years at North Central, Wallace Hall was a Spanish Club member, a Boys’ Federation representative, a library deputy, and on the school newspaper and yearbook staffs.

After serving with the U.S. Navy in World War II, he enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley, where he earned an undergraduate degree with high honors. He stayed on to do graduate work and received his Ph.D. degree in 1960. Dr. Hall then joined the school’s Institute of Personality Assessment and Research as a research psychologist, working in that capacity until his retirement in 1983. From time to time, he offered courses and seminars in the department of psychology on topics of personality theory and assessment. He also gave guest lectures at other research centers and universities, including the University of New Mexico, Montana State University, CSU San Francisco, the Rhode Island School of Design, and Colorado State University.

One of his special areas of research was creativity, particularly in architecture. He was the author or co-author of several research papers on this topic that were widely cited and acclaimed. Another area of study to which he contributed many papers was the prediction of academic and clinical performance of medical school students and physicians. A third area of work was the development of new instruments for identifying creative potential, and the evaluation of personality tests when used for the same purpose.

During his retirement, Dr. Hall contributed thousands of dollars to the North Central H.S. Library. Many of the volumes on the shelves there today are available due to his generosity.